“It's nice to speak to nice people who are dedicated to supporting you. Emphatically, that is what you get with 34SP.com.”

Andrew Shanahan, Founder

Andrew ShanahanMAN v FAT

MAN v FAT is the brain child of Andrew Shanahan, an award-winning writer, editor and publisher. Created in response to the dearth of weight loss programmes tailored specifically to men, MAN v FAT provides men with weight loss advice and motivation.

How my business got started

My experience of trying to get support for my weight loss was sitting in a Weight Watchers meeting while the leader told the class that "during your time of the month you’ll get fluctuations in your weight so don’t worry if you gain!" I was (fairly) sure that wasn’t my issue and it got me wondering – how many other men out there are struggling just to find some help with their weight loss? I was morbidly obese in 2014 and there wasn't much out there for men trying to lose weight. That’s when MAN v FAT was born.

How my website helped my business become successful

Man v Fat started as a free digital magazine, a website and a forum. By 2015 we had over 350 thousand people on the forum. This year we're going to do over half a million people. One of the real surprises with MAN v FAT football was the media interest in what we were doing. We've been on The One Show twice, and we've been on Channel 5's The Saturday Show. I think nearly every national newspaper has covered us. It's grown significantly and very quickly. One downside, if you can call it that, of having a lot of media attention is that suddenly you get these limited windows of opportunity where you want your website to behave. 34SP.com have been brilliant with that throughout the years, as a result the website stays online and we manage to convert that precious time into sales and registrations.

Andrew makes an apperance on BBC 1 programme, The One Show

How we plan to grow in future

I've gained support from Jamie Oliver, The National Obesity Forum, Weight Concern and The British Dietetic Association. Not only that but we got thousands of subscribers backing the project. I believe that men need support in three forms:

Quality, enjoyable advice, information and tools which give them a no-bullshit view on the facts about weight loss.

A community where you know that other men are cheering you on and you can give and get support.

Weight loss schemes that fit in with your life and that are designed for us – normal(ish) blokes who just want to lose weight.

I want all men to have that support when it comes to losing weight. More than that, I want MAN v FAT to champion their efforts. If you’d like to support what we’re trying to do then get involved and help us to take MAN v FAT to the 500 million overweight and obese men in the world. Share it on Facebook, stick it on Twitter, discuss it on Reddit, Instagram the living heck out of it.

My advice to others

One of things I always suggest people is that they should try and phone the technical support helpline. People will die long before some hosting companies ever pick up the phone, at that point you have to remember you're going to be panicking like crazy. It's nice to speak to nice people who are dedicated to supporting you and emphatically that is what you get with 34SP.com.